Article 14

To give some further perspective I record the following:

I've smoked dope, chewed rope, dirty danced, French romanced, fought, f*rted, shot the moon, and drove big trucks. I've been to Main, Spain, Spokane, and Fort Wayne, seen three World Fairs, been around the world twice, looked danger in the face, and heard goats fart in the market place.

But, I ain't never previously been in a formation with a Spitfire.

Therefore, Kevin Kostner may have been dancing with wolves and some crazy individuals may have run with the bulls, but I flew in a formation with a Spitfire.

Correction

I have to level with the reader, I have done none of the mentioned thing except for the fact that I have on occasion been known to f*rt and I have heard goats in the marketplace doing the same thing.

Our distinguished guest joins us.

A further view of the thing of beauty.

Earlier that day: Turning for home at Newcastle.

No, we are not on fire. We are just showing off.

DANCING WITH WOLVES, RUNNING WITH THE BULLS AND FLYING FORMATION WITH A SPITFIRE

Coen van Wyk

After I earned the right to stick the SAAF Wings on the front of my apparel, my first tour of duty was with 4 Squadron, that was based at Rand Airport. There I rubbed shoulders with fighter pilots who inter alia saw action in World War II, a war that had ended just 10 years earlier (Lordie, lordie, lordie, that certainly does date me!). A fair number of my squadron mates flew Spitfires during the war. By that time these warbirds were already in short supply and the only exposure that I had to them were that, on occasion, as a young boy, I saw them pass overhead.

The Wings that were stuck on my chest at the wings parade, bore the British crown and the crown also figured on the insignia on my cap. In those days, the SAAF ties with the RAF were still particularly strong and, given the role that Britain played in the establishment of the SAAF, and the fact that, at the time, South Africa was still part of the commonwealth, a lot of the RAF culture was still to be detected in the SAAF. The Spitfire, the champion of the RAF's endeavours during the Battle of Britain, was therefore more than an aircraft to me, it was an icon, and that situation endured ever since.

Despite my infatuation with the Spitfire, I just never had any significant contact with the machine, until Saturday, September 29, 2001, when I received an assignment from Mike de Villiers, the managing editor of SA Flyer, to cover, as freelance reporter, certain aspects of the air show at Newcastle, and was given a lift by Arnie Meneghelli in one of his four superb Harvards. The freelance photographer who was also assigned to do a photo shoot for SA Flyer was Frans Dely and he occupied the back cockpit of one of the other Harvards in the formation. The other pilots in the formation, that was led by Arnie Meneghelli, were Johan Dries, Shaun Thackray and Gavin Brown.

I must now comment on the condition of Arnie's Harvards. I found the pristine condition of the machines rather overwhelming. Over a period of a number of years I have spent many hours flying in SAAF Harvards that were sun-bleached and with cockpits that showed the wear and tear caused by countless hands operating the controls, and other facilities in the cockpit. And here I found myself in a machine that had an appearance that suggested that it had just rolled of the production line.

I may mention that this was the first time that I flew in the back cockpit of a Harvard.

The flight to Newcastle was enjoyable but uneventful. On reaching our destination, we approached the field in echelon formation, peeled off, joined the circuit and my chauffeur, Gavin Brown, subsequently impressed me with a perfect three point landing.

At the air show the Aero L39 Delfin ZU-AUW was lost in an unfortunate accident and I will be reporting on that accident in a separate article.

One other thing that happened at the air show was that Frans Dely and I discovered a connection. I only met Frans Dely at the Harvards shortly before we departed for Newcastle, but when he told me at the air show that his late father flew Dakotas on 44 Squadron during 1965, we discovered that his late father and I served on the same squadron during that year. A subsequent perusal of my logbook inter alia revealed that I was his late father's co-pilot during a night flying exercise on 18 February 1965 and that he thereafter acted as my co-pilot. Frans' comment was that he was 9 years old at the time. Life is indeed full of surprises.

And now for the good stuff. Some time after we took off and headed back to Rand Airport, Andrew Torr joined our formation in his Spitfire.

Our distinguished guest soon joined us.

I gazed at the Spitfire and pondered the fact that, due to some unique set of circumstances, I had to wait for more than two decades to interact with a Spitfire in a meaningful way, as was the case during our formation flight with the Spitfire. Andrew Torr flew with us for a while and then rushed off in the direction of Rand Airport.

When we reached Rand Airport we once more approached the runway in echelon formation and broke. The following picture shows my ride just before the formation broke.

The picture containing the vapour trail was taken just before we broke formation at Rand Airport.

If my elation seems ill beseeming for an adult, then so be it.  After all, men are inclined only to age and mature from their feet up to their knee-caps, so why should I feign being different. I derived a childlike pleasure from the particular experience, and I know I am not the only one.

To give some further perspective I record the following:

I've smoked dope, chewed rope, dirty danced, French romanced, fought, f*rted, shot the moon, and drove big trucks. I've been to Main, Spain, Spokane, and Fort Wayne, seen three World Fairs, been around the world twice, looked danger in the face, and heard goats fart in the market place.

But, I ain't never previously been in a formation with a Spitfire.

Therefore, Kevin Kostner may have been dancing with wolves and some crazy individuals may have run with the bulls, but I flew in a formation with a Spitfire.

Correction

I have to level with the reader, I have done none of the mentioned thing except for the fact that I have on occasion been known to f*rt and I have heard goats in the marketplace doing the same thing.